Over the course of my writing, I and some of my friends have written many articles about the obsession on the left known as “PC” or Political Correctness. These articles include, but are not limited to: “Has PC Taken Away Free Speech,” “When Christmas was the Holiday,” “If it walks Like a Duck” and “Synonyms.”
Unfortunately, this PC obsession on the left seems to have infected all aspects of our country ranging from education to entertainment, whether it is television, film, or the written word. In fact, some friends of mine in education have told me that almost everything in education is controlled by PC at this point. One of the most recent examples is the news that Mark Twain’s classic piece of literature, Huckleberry Finn, is now being edited to take out all usage of the dreaded “N” word “nigger.”
As I stated in my earlier article cited above “Has PC Taken Away Free Speech,” episodes of the classic television situation comedy “Sanford and Son“ are being edited now on TV Land to remove all usage of that word. This is true regardless of whether the usage is funny or fits within the context of the episode. The same is also being done to other situational comedies from the 70’s which contained irreverent and/or racial humor.
In fact, use of the dreaded “N” word has gotten so toxic that just talking about it in this column makes me feel uncomfortable. The mere suggestion that the word exists puts you into a different category of human beings unless of course you are an African-American rapper, at which point you can use that word as many times as you want without any fear of being called a racist pig. (By the way, that is just one example of liberal hypocrisy).
Most of this, as it relates to the entertainment industry, came to a head last weekend at the Golden Globes ceremony. The host was British comedian Ricky Gervais. Mr. Gervais’ style is that he pulls no punches, and being British does not have the obsession with being PC that Americans do. If you want to watch all of his monologues from the event, please click here: Ricky Gervais on the Golden Globes. This will give you a good example of his irreverent humor.
Needless to say, this had the liberal Hollywood community up in arms. In fact, Tom Hanks who is usually Mr. Nice Guy and one of my favorite members of the Hollywood Establishment, made the following statement about Mr. Gervais as he got onstage with Tim Allen during the awards: “We recall when Ricky Gervais was a slightly chubby but very kind comedian,” to which Allen added: “Neither of which he is now.”
This went on all night and at points members of the Hollywood Establishment were seen dumbfounded at the comments coming out of Mr. Gervais’ mouth. In fact, Robert Downey, Jr. at one point made a comment along the lines that the entire event had become rather nasty.
There was a time when Hollywood could laugh at itself and could laugh at things not PC. Unfortunately, that time has passed. Now, the Liberal Establishment has decided that saying anything off color has become forbidden and should be quashed. What has happened? Have we really gotten to the point where the First Amendment guarantee of Free Speech has another exception: “Though shall not say anything that offends anyone else?”
When will it all stop? When we have become a bunch of sheep following the PC Shepherd? Must we all live in fear that every word out of our mouths will be interpreted as racist or against some group, such as the mentally handicapped?
I do not believe this is what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote the First Amendment.
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